LA MUERTA: LAST RITES #1 (graphic novel) by Brian Pulido

 

Published by Coffin Comics in 2016.

Story by Brian Puildo.
Written by Mike Maclean.

Illustrated by Joel Gomez.

The Zavalas are a crime cartel with a connection to the occult. That in and of itself is not ridiculous since some of the Mexican cartels have taken advantage of religious symbols and ideas in their propaganda.

Maria Diaz came back from the fighting in Afghanistan to find that the Zavalas killed her entire family. She decided to dress up in a disguise, adopt a new persona and get even, very much like The Punisher. Unlike The Punisher, who wears a skull on this shirt, she paints a skull on her face, Day of the Dead-style.

What follows is an almost constant gun battle interspersed with bombs, acid attacks and more. If you like non-stop action, this book has that in spades. If you like character growth of any sort, you will be disappointed.

Turns out, I value character growth. The Zavalas are not explained, for example. They just keep coming up with more and ever-weirder bad guys, culminating in a big boss bad guy who looks like she was designed by a 12 year old boy with a fascination with BDSM. Seriously, who fights a bomb throwing, pistol-shooting former soldier bent on revenge by wielding an Aztec sword and wearing a teeny tiny leather string bikini with thigh-high stiletto boots?

The art was up and down - sometimes top-notch, sometimes skimped over.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: LA MUERTA: LAST RITES #1 (graphic novel).

THE PRINCESS, the SCOUNDREL, and the FARM BOY by Alexandra Bracken

 

Published in 2019 by Disney LucasFilm Press.

The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy is a YA re-telling of Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. It is told from the perspective of three different characters: Princess Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker - in that order.

The book starts out, like the movie, with the attack of Leia's ship and the fight as stormtroopers board it and stays with her through the destruction of Alderaan. The middle of the book starts with Han in the cantina looking at the results of Ben Kenobi's handiwork with a light saber. It stays with Han until they escape from the Death Star. At that point, it switches to Luke and stays with him until the end.

This is more than a simple re-telling of the movie, though. That book was already written by George Lucas (ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster) a long time ago.

There are lots of direct quotes from the movie ("I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." "That's no moon..." "No reward is worth this." "I used to bull's-eye womp rats...") but the strength of the book is that it adds to the plot of the movie. We get background on the activist background of Princess Leia, Han Solo's secret desire to be part of something larger and more meaningful, more details on the little bit of training Kenobi gave Luke on the Millennium Falcon and the training that Luke got so that he could go from flying a T-16 to an X-Wing so well. 

All of the additions made sense and the story still flowed smoothly. I read the original novel at least 10 times back in the early 80s and I can't count the number of times I have seen the movie (so many times that my mind supplied the correct bits of musical soundtrack as I read along). This book was a lot of fun. I have no idea if this book would make sense to anyone who hadn't already seen the movie, but I enjoyed it.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE PRINCESS, THE SCOUNDREL, AND THE FARM BOY by Alexandra Bracken.

BLOOD MONEY: A LUCKY DEY THRILLER (audiobook) by Doug Richardson

Published in 2019 by Velvet Elvis Entertainment.
Read by Tim DeKay.
Duration: 9 hours, 35 minutes.
Unabridged

Synopsis:

On a lonely country road in Kern County, north of Los Angeles, a police officer is murdered while he is trying to help 2 crash victims.

The police officer is the little brother of a hard-charging officer named Lucky Dey and Lucky is determined to get the murderer at all costs. They determine that the driver of a black semi hauling a matching black refrigerated trailer is probably the murderer. The evidence points towards it heading to Los Angeles.

Lucky rolls into down at 100+ MPH, meets up with a contact/babysitter from LAPD and they soon figure out that this is even more of a mess than they thought it was...

My review:

The general idea of Blood Money was good, but just too busy. I think the story was told through at least eight different characters and that just diffused the action and drive of the story too much. On top of that, almost none of the characters are likable. For example, the main character is semi-racist throughout the book. Is semi-racist a thing? He says racist comments throughout the book. I guess that makes him just a simple racist. Also, sexist. But, on a positive note, he is good with kids.

******Spoilers******

Even worse, I never really could figure out what the deal was with the bad guy, but he had amazing powers of recuperation. He went from barely being able to walk due to a heavily damaged knee (took a superhuman effort to walk a few blocks) to being able to kill again, dispose of the body, stalk a man, drive with a clutch (18 wheelers have sooooo many gears!) and then also get involved in a running gun fight while literally climbing all over vehicles - all in the same day!

******End spoilers********

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. This author should have been able to do better. He is literally the writer of multiple action screenplays that you have heard of - like Bad Boys and Die Hard 2.

It can be found at Amazon.com here: BLOOD MONEY: A LUCKY DEY THRILLER by Doug Richardson.

Note: I was sent a free review copy of this audiobook from the publisher so that I could write an honest review.

KING PHILLIP II: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Kindle) by Hourly History

 

Published in 2020 by Hourly History.

King Philip II (1527-1598) ruled Spain at its most powerful. This is the Spain that took over Portugal, consolidated its New World holdings, conquered the Philippines, stopped Ottoman naval expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean, stopped Protestant expansion in several areas yet lost the Spanish Armada to the English and suffered a series of losses in the Netherlands. It was the first that could reasonably claim that the sun never set on its empire. 

Philip's personal life takes up a lot of this book. For such a powerful man, his personal life had to humble him. He had multiple wives who died from a variety of ways, but usually related to giving birth.  He also lost several children.

His oldest son suffered from physical and mental illnesses that were so pronounced that the Philip II stepped in and barred his son from being next in line for the throne. That son died in custody, possibly by making himself ill while being held in confinement by poisoning himself or freezing himself by covering himself in ice and sleeping on beds of ice.

The beauty and the weakness of this book series is the brevity of each book. They are designed to be read in about an hour, which means I can explore a whole new area or person with little time commitment. But, I always end up with questions. In this book, Philip's self-assigned role as a defender of the Catholic faith and the politics in that arena was given light treatment.

I rate this short e-book 3 stars out of 5. Nothing wrong with this book - it doesn't make the reader an expert, but it did fill in some blanks in my personal knowledge of this time period.

This e-book can be found on Amazon.com here:  King Philip II: A Life from Beginning to End in 2020 by Hourly History.

HOW the WORD IS PASSED: A RECKONING with the HISTORY of SLAVERY ACROSS AMERICA (audiobook) by Clint Smith

 

Published by Little, Brown and Company.
Read by the author, Clint Smith.
Duration: 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Unabridged.

Clint Smith decided to explore several key historical sites that have ties to American slavery and how the consequences of American slavery has echoed down throughout American history.

He is looking for constant threads in American history from the perspective of African Americans. He visits Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, New Orleans, Angola Prison, a plantation in Louisiana that emphasizes the lives of the majority of the people that lived and worked there (the slaves and the Jim Crow era labor that was trapped there), a Confederate grave yard, the place were Juneteenth happened in Texas, New York City (a slave stronghold in the North for a surprisingly long time) and finally a fortress used as a slave market in Africa.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Sally Hemings (c. 1773-1835)

This is a difficult book in many ways. Smith intentionally digs into difficult questions and is an excellent interviewer. His first location is Monticello and his interviews and observations are just about perfect. He explores the contradictions that should fill every discussion of Jefferson. There is a powerful discussion about Sally Hemings, how slavery has been dealt with on the Monticello tours and how the refusal to acknowledge this complicated past reflects the history we want to hear rather than the history that actually happened.

Monticello provided a strong start and the rest of the book was not quite as strong but still provided plenty to think about. This is a topic that America seems to want to avoid at all costs. This is evidenced by all of the furor over the 1619 Project and the abject fear that someone might be teaching something similar to Critical Race Theory in America somewhere. 

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: HOW the WORD IS PASSED: A RECKONING with the HISTORY of SLAVERY ACROSS AMERICA (audiobook) by Clint Smith.

This book would go well with these books that I have read in the last year: 

ROBERT E. LEE and ME: A SOUTHERNER'S RECKONING with the MYTH of the LOST CAUSE by Ty Seidule and DOWN ALONG with THAT DEVIL'S BONES: A RECKONING with MONUMENTS, MEMORY, and the LEGACY of WHITE SUPREMACY by Connor Towne O'Neill.

THE FAITHFUL SPY: DIETRICH BONHOEFFER and the PLOT to KILL HITLER by John Hendrix

Published in 2018 by Amulet Books.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is well-known as one of the few ministers who stood up to the Nazis and kept his ministry completely independent of the totalitarian regime. Eventually, his principled stand led to his death in prison. Along that path there was a point where he closed down his ministry and used his connections to get a position in military intelligence.

At first, this sounds like he totally gave in to the Nazis. However, it turns out that the military intelligence and the Nazi intelligence departments were completely separate entities and they did not get along very well. Bonhoeffer used that mistrust and friction to his advantage - he sent intelligence to the Allied powers, he helped with plans to sneak Jews out of Germany.

These were easy actions on a moral level - if you believe the regime in charge of your country is evil, you will work against it. But, the more Bonhoeffer thought about it, the more he considered taking more decisive action - action that would end in the sin of murder. He joined a plot to assassinate Hitler...

This biography was very well done. The book is sort of a regular biography combined with a heavy dose of graphic novel. The pictures are sometimes accurate and sometimes heavily symbolic, like the wolf picture posted above (pages 60-61).

I rate this biography 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE FAITHFUL SPY: DIETRICH BONHOEFFER and the PLOT to KILL HITLER by John Hendrix.

SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

 

Published by Hourly History in 2020.

I am an avid reader of history, but I have areas of weakness that I am perfectly willing to shore up a bit, but I don't want to invest a ton of time in. The long history of India is just one of those areas for me. I know more than most people, but I can see the glaringly empty areas of ignorance.

Subhas Chandra Bose was one of those people for me. I had heard of him, but only described as sort of an "anti-Ghandi". He wanted independence as much as Ghandi did, but thought the non-violent protests were a waste of time. Subhas Chandra Bose was not only willing to fight - he thought it was the only way India would be free of English rule.

Bose was born in India but formally educated in England. He was poised to take his place in the bureaucracy of colonial India. But, he rejected that offer and became active in the independence movement. 

As World War II loomed, Bose saw it as an opportunity to free India. He approached the Fascist powers for support. Germany and Italy poo-pooed him but Japan saw the potential and financed a army of Indian nationals - but waited too late to make a difference. 

The beauty and the weakness of this book series is the brevity of each book. They are designed to be read in about an hour, which means I can explore a whole new area or person with little time commitment. But, I always end up with questions. In this book, I found myself wondering how much faith the Japanese really had in Bose and his army and why they waited so long to fund it.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  SUBHA CHANDRA BOSE:  A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History.

MEDICAL MYTHS, LIES and HALF-TRUTHS: WHAT WE THING WE KNOW MAY HURT US by Dr. Steven Novella

 

Published by The Great Courses in 2013.

Presented by the author, Dr. Steven Novella.
Duration: 12 hours, 25 minutes.
Unabridged.

Dr. Steven Novella addresses common questions and misconceptions that people often have about medicine. 

The topics covered range from the very serious (like cancer, for example) to the relatively lightweight (do caffeinated drinks actually do anything to hydrate a person?).

Novella explains the science behind each of his discussions in everyday language and his demeanor is more like that of a friend than that of a lecturing authority figure. 

As in all books of this sort, there were parts that I was keenly interested in and parts that I didn't care a whole lot about. But, on the whole, this book is well worth your time.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  MEDICAL MYTHS, LIES and HALF-TRUTHS: WHAT WE THING WE KNOW MAY HURT US by Dr. Steven Novella.